Gilbert at Newfoundland

Armed with these arbitrary powers and aided by Raleigh's friendship and money, Gilbert, at the expense of much of his own fortune, fitted out a small squadron and sailed for America late in 1579. He had been distinguished for gallant military service in Ireland, and in 1570 had received the honor of knighthood. Six years afterwards, he had published a book entitled "A Discourse of a Discovery for a New Passage to Cathay," which attracted a good deal of attention toward him. His reputation was so high that the sons of many of the nobility and gentry of England embarked with him as adventurers. They were utterly unfit to be the founders of a state (and were not permitted to become so), for most of them were idlers and some were dissolute.

It is said by some that Raleigh sailed with his half-brother. Heavy storms or Spanish war vessels destroyed one of the ships, and compelled the remainder to turn back, and for the space of four years afterwards the enterprise was held in abeyance. Gilbert was too much impoverished to undertake another expedition; but Raleigh and his friends, at the end of that time, fitted out another small squadron. It sailed from Plymouth in June, 1583, under the command of Gilbert, who bore as a present from the queen and as a token of her good-will, a golden anchor guided by a woman; and he was accompanied by a learned Hungarian. The little flotilla reached Newfoundland in August, and entered the harbor of St. John's, wherein the Lord of Robertval and Cartier had met almost fifty years before. There, on the firm earth, Gilbert set up a column with the arms of England carved on it; and in the presence of hundreds of fishermen from Western Europe, whom he summoned to the spot, he formally took possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth.

Gilbert's vessels had suffered much from storms on the voyage; but the intrepid mariners, after making slight repairs, proceeded to explore the coasts southward. Off the shores of Cape Breton, heavy tempests beat upon his ships, and not long afterwards his larger one, in which he sailed, was dashed upon the rocks and lost with about one hundred men. The commander was saved and took refuge in the Squirrel, a little vessel of ten tons. Buffeting the waves until his flotilla was dispersed and hope failed, he turned the prow of his little vessel homeward, with another named the Hind. On a September day when a gale was rising, the two vessels were within speaking distance of each other. Gilbert was sitting abaft with a book in his hand, and in reply to a shout from the commander of the Hind that they were in great peril, he cried: "We are as near Heaven on the sea as on the land." The gale increased: night fell; the darkness became intense, and at midnight the lights of the Squirrel went out suddenly. The little bark had plunged beneath the waves and all on board perished. The Hind was the only vessel of the squadron that escaped the tempests and returned to England with tidings of the disaster.

Misfortune seemed to stimulate Raleigh to more energetic action. He was then paying court to the queen, with whom he was a great favorite. He asked her for a charter in all respects the same as that she had given to Gilbert, but covering lands further south. It was given in April, 1584. It constituted Raleigh Lord Proprietor of all countries between Delaware Bay and the mouth of the Santee River in South Carolina. Quick in the execution of his projects, two ships were made ready for sea before June, well equipped with men and provisions. Arthur Barlow, a skillful mariner, was placed in chief command, assisted by Philip Amidas, of French descent but a native of England. They were directed to explore the coasts within the parallels named, and choose a place for settlement. Instead of following the northerly path across the Atlantic, in which so many disasters had occurred, they went by the way of the Canary Isles, were wafted by the trade-winds to the West Indies, and approached the American coast in the latitude of Florida. Turning northward, they ran up the coast along the line of the Gulf Stream, and entering Ocracock Inlet, anchored off Wocoken Island, in July. There they landed, and were kindly received by the gentle natives who were as kindly treated in return. There Barlow set up a small column with the British arms rudely carved upon it, and waving over it the banner of England, in the presence of the wondering natives, took possession of the whole region--island and main, inlets and sounds--in the name of the queen. They spent several weeks in explorations of Roanoke Island and Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, and in trafficking with the natives. "The people," wrote the mariners," were most gentle, loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as lived after the manner of the golden age."